Jeff Poor

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says that the showdown over raising the debt ceiling is a false crisis which is taking time away from the many real crises America faces.

“Well first of all, Christiane, I think this is a completely artificial crisis,” Huffington said on ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour” Sunday. “Most countries have no debt ceiling. We started the debt ceiling in the First World War. It’s been raised dozens of times. There is no reason to cap on it with handling our long-term debt and deficit crisis. It is a crisis because they made it a crisis. We have many, many real crises. We have a job crisis. We have a growth crisis. We have a deficit crisis. We have a human capital crisis. We have an infrastructure crisis. We are not handling this crisis right now. We are handling a completely artificial crisis.”

Huffington argued that even if a debt agreement was reached today, it would not do anything “to solve our real problems.”

“It’s not good we’re talking about it in this context,” Huffington said. “Even if we get a deal this afternoon, even if we get that grand bargain, it will not solve any of our problems. We’ll still have massive unemployment and we’ll still have kids graduating from college unable to get jobs and we’ll still have crumbling bridges. So we’re not doing anything to solve our real problems and that’s what politicians are supposed to be doing.”

That statement led to this exchange between Huffington and Fox Business Network correspondent Charles Gasparino. According to Gasparino, it is good to see the debt problem at least being discussed. Huffington dismissed the contention:

GASPARINO: Arianna, $14 trillion of debt is a big problem and it’s growing.
HUFFINGTON: But you’re not addressing it. You know perfectly — if you don’t address our growth problem we’ll never resolve our deficit problem.
GASPARINO: Absolutely, I’ve always said that but we do have to get a handle on it. At least we’re debating it.
HUFFINGTON: But we’re not getting a handle on it.
GASPARINO: We are talking about cuts.
HUFFINGTON: One more percent of growth would actually do more to solve our problems than any cuts in entitlements.

Hey Ms Huffington … both the Ryan Plan and the Cut, Cap & Balance plan do address growth. Constrain the growth of government, reduce deficit/debt, cut the size of government, reform entitlements (at least partially addressed) and reform tax system (at least pertially addressed) will facilitate growth and confidence. NOTHING the Democrats have ever passed, proposed or made speeches about facilitate growth (proof is our declining economy almost 3 years after Obama was elected and almost 5 years of Democrat control of Congress). Socialism does not work.

doncicciofitipaldi

RU IMAGINING SOCIALISM AGAIN?

Jean Sartre

RyanDeathCare and the Ryan plan would throw millions of people into unemployment immediately, destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; it would end the EPA, the FDA, stop government supported research, make it all but impossible for people to afford getting into college and take away the safety net for our poor children, the disabled, senior citizens and hand all of these folks over to private for-profit insurance companies, along with a voucher for 1/100th of their health care costs… MARVELOUS PLAN.

I don’t know about you, but I pay into Social Security, as does my employer. When it comes time for me to retire, I get back the money that both my employer and I paid into the SS system. [That is probably Socialism to you.]

Now, a strange thing happened under President Lyndon – the bane of our existence – Johnson: he took all the money that was in a separate account, called the Social Security Trust Fund, which was to be used only to pay for SS benefits, and moved it into the General Account, where all the corrupt politicians go to fund their pork barrel projects, superfluous trips abroad, etc. Therefore, whenever any of these corrupt politicians uses the SS money from out of the General Fund, they have to replace the money they took out, with an IOU. Now isn’t that just about the KOOLEST thing that you ever heard of?

As of today – and this is now part of our Federal Deficit and it is money owed to the American people – we have 2.67 TRILLION dollars owed to the Social Security Trust Fund.

Will I ever see my hard earned contribution to Social Security?
Will Paul Ryan, the sub-mediocre CPA, masquerading as a Congressman from my district help me get it?

richardhead

The Ryan plan increases the deficit. It was a media stunt. You have been played as a stooge.

I am sure that the deal about raising a trillion dollars of taxes (over 10 years) in the “Grand Bargain” Obama is trying to craft with the House Republicans will mostly increase taxes on the upper middle class (like Obamacare did), while it will promise “future” spending cuts that never happen.

It is time for the media to start telling people who don’t follow politics in this country, as well as Democrats and Liberals and Socialists all across the country, this important truth:

WE DON’T TAX ACCUMULATED WEALTH IN THIS COUNTRY.

WE TAX INCOME.

TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS.

TAXING PERSONAL INCOME PREVENTS 90% OF THE AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS FROM EVER ACCUMULATING SIGNIFICANT WEALTH, OFTEN FORCING THE MEMBERS OF THESE HOUSEHOLDS TO BE DEPENDENT ON GOVERNMENT SUPPORT LATER IN THEIR LIVES!

Yes, this truth has to be shouted. Maybe then it will go through the thick heads of the brainwashed on both sides of the equation (the far left and the far right).

Taxing the income of millionaires and billionaires makes for good sound bites but it is a false argument presented the way it is by the Democrats.

We don’ tax accumulated wealth? LMFAO. Really? Have you ever heard of inheritance taxes, estate taxes or death tax? What country are you from? Maybe I should ask what planet………

BigRmv

Don…..ldi, 2 questions:

1) What happened to your constant CAPS LOCK?

2) Did you ever ask WHY we tax accumulated weath at all?

The federal (and state) governments tax me and my employer on my income, then they tax me on any interest earned on that income. Then they tax me on any money I make in sales (capital gains) of stocks or real property. So I’m taxed several times for all of that accumulated wealth.

Why are we taxed again?

doncicciofitipaldi

YOUR TRUTHS ARE UNTRUE. IF 50% OF AMERICANS DON’T EVEN PAY TAXES, HOW CAN PAYING FEDERAL INCOME TAX KEEPS 90% OF AMERICANS FROM (…ALL THAT OTHER NONENSE YOU WRITE). DOES 90+50=100???? ONCE AGAIN, WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM?

Drahcir

Where in this post is your 50% or is this more of the Fuzzy Math?
Could this person be saying that out of your fifty percent that pay taxs ninety percent cannot acheve wealth?
That is as simple as I can put it, So board your starship and go home.